The Aftermath
by lukadarkwater
Summary: The hours leading up to when Rythian trapped Duncan in the cage. Pairing: Zoethian


"_Anything, anything but this."_

The thought roared though Rythian's head as he flew as hard as he could back to Blackrock. Just seconds before he had been flying slowly away but then he had heard the boom, that damn boom.

He could see the dark mushroom cloud in the distance signaling the place where their castle was, or had been.

As he was flying, he passed though the first cloud of smog from the explosion and, much to his surprise, was sent tumbling to the earth. He hit the ground with the thump and felt his breath escape from his lungs and climbed to his feet unsure of what had happened.

"_Is my Kline star out of power?"_ he thought and checked his innovatory only to find that his Kline star was gone.

A horrible sense of foreboding washed thought him but he didn't have time to pounder what had happened, Zoey was all that mattered now.

He began running like mad, not caring about his burning sides or the sweat that dripped down his face, he had to find her.

He came to the beach that stood just across from the burning wreck that was once his home, their home, and began searching.

He broke block after block, went down into small holes, ran around the grounds until he had covered every square inch of the outside but still nothing.

He came recklessly close to the nuked-out crater, screaming her name.  
"ZOEY! Zoey, I'm here!" he was cut off as the smoke made him chock and he collapsed on the edge of the beach.

He was covered in a sticky layer of grim, smoke, and his own sweat but he knew he wouldn't give up, couldn't give up, until her found her.

Ever since he had heard the explosion, he had only one thought in his mind. "_She could be dead. She could be gone." _

The thought made his entire being turn to ice. She had, somewhere between all the madness and weird mushroom obsessions, become his sun, his fire, and he wasn't ready to lose that.

Yet as he sat by their destroyed home with no sign of her, he was feeling more and more certain that the horrible possibly was about to become fact.

Suddenly, he was jolted out of his thoughts by a strange sound. It wasn't the sound of the burning building or the horse screaming of his own voice, it was the sound of something falling.

He looked out over the water just in time to see something green hit the water. He stood and raced over to see what it was.

It turned out to be a green sheep that made strange noses as it bobbed in the water. Rythian stared blankly at the sheep wondering numbly where it had come from.

Then he looked up and saw another shape hurterling towards the water. He wasn't sure why but just then he had a flashback to the first time he had seen her, the girl with the fire hair.

Splash! The object hit the mostly clear water and immediately the clear blue turned a murky greenish-red color with a splash of bright red hair in the middle.

Bright red hair. Rythian was in the water and towing it back towards the shore before his mind knew what was going on.

He laid the broken girl on the grass and instantly gagged at the sight. Her entire body was covered with awful, grizzly burns. Her hair, or what was left of it, had been dyed slightly green no doubt by the radiation, but the worst part was her arm.

It was gone. From the elbow down just gone. The blood was already streaming across the ground and the sight of it snapped him into action.

He quickly began chanting all the healing spells he knew, closing wounds, removing what radiation he could, trying to keep that heart beating.

Tee arrived around that time and fell to his knees beside the girl they both loved.

Even though he was mute, Rythian knew he was screaming.

"Tee, help me." Rythian gasped between spells, "We need a safe place to put her, and medicine. Potions anything, just help me!"

Tee nodded and was gone. Rythian set poring more and more magic into her as the sun dipped below the horizon. Sometime around nightfall, Tee showed up again leading a testificate wearing a white robe.

The white robed man didn't speak but instead motioned for Rythian to follow him. After a quick glace at Tee, Rythian picked Zoey up very carefully and followed them. They moved as fast as was safe for Zoey, and soon arrived in a desert village on a small ocean.

The testificate directed them towards the largest building in the village that had a large red cross over the door.

As soon as Rythian stepped in, other testificates swarmed around them taking Zoey carefully from him and putting her on a waiting bed.

The one he had met in the forest pushed him towards the door.

"No!" he said shoving him off "I have to stay with her."

The testificate shook his head. "We care for her. Will be fine. Come back in morning."

He said in broken English.

Rythian clenched his fists and was about to protest when Tee laid his hand on his shoulder and pointed to a sign on the door. It read "Sick Bay Hospital, training the best testificate doctors in the land since 2009."

He had heard vaguely about Sick Bay before, and it was always talked about in a good light so he let out his pent up breath and told the doctor. "I will be first thing in the morning. Please take care of her, she's all I have left."

The doctor nodded and Rythian and Tee walked outside.

Rythain looked up at the sky and judged the time somewhere between midnight and one. "_Perfect,"_ he thought grimly, "_Just enough time for this."_

He looked over at Tee "I have something to do. Wait here with Zoey, I'll be back by morning."

Tee looked at him levelly before nodding and sitting down on the steps outside the hospital.

Rythain took a deep breath and began the long trek towards Duncan's castle.

Author's Notes: Yeah um, I just really want episode 2 but I shall wait. Just my quick interpretation of what happened just after the nuke went off. It's not fluff for once! I'm writing that now… Hope you enjoyed it!


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